Concerns about heart health

I’m 24 and I was recently diagnosed with grade 1 Diastolic Dysfunction in the Left Ventricle, borderline Mitral Valve Prolapse with mild regurgitation, trace Pulmonary Valve regurgitation, & trace-mild tricuspid valve regurgitation. These things develop naturally as a result of aging. It’s more common in people who are 65+. So I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Idk what mine is a result of. Connective tissue lack of/fault collagen or autoimmune disease is my guess because I have Lupus as well. They can monitor your heart for blood pooling and valves can get repairs or replacements. But some people live with MVP for a while without getting help. You can take meds to help with heart rate and blood pressure and what not. This is all I know so far on my journey.

I have diastolic dysfunction (moderate) with preserved ejection fraction, and left ventricular hypertrophy (moderate), and thickening of the septum from what they could tell from the echo. The images were suboptimal. I just had a chemical stress test this past Wednesday (not a fan…wasn’t a fun experience). Friday they called and THAT was abnormal (meaning there are some blockages), so they put me on low dose aspirin, prescribed generic crestor, prescribed nitroglycerin if I need it (so far I haven’t had chest pains…closest I’ve come to doing so is the stress test). Tuesday I am having a right and left heart cath done along with a transesophogeal EKG to find out just how bad things are. I’m 46. My blood pressure normally runs low to normal with spikes if I’m very sick or in pain or anxious. The only reason we are even doing all this is I kept pushing at my primary care doctor. I suddenly gained 40 lbs of fluid in 4 weeks (mostly from the waist down) and started having shortness of breath and nausea when the swelling would be at its worst. He prescribed 40mg lasix and potassium. I continued to swell. He upped it to 60mg. He had me come in. I was still swollen. He upped it to 80mg and added aldactone. I asked why it was happening and he said labs showed my kidneys and liver were ok, so he didn’t know. I pushed more that I shouldn’t be a water balloon on the diuretic and said the shortness of breath was worse and more persistent plus I was having extreme fatigue (like my boyfriend driving us 30 min to eat lunch with my aunt wore me out and I slept the rest of the day level of fatigue). He finally grudgingly ordered an echocardiogram and referred me to a cardiologist. Even more frustrating was I saw the report in my patient portal for the hospital with the findings listed. I saw the cardiologist and he scheduled the stress test and said he was definitely doing a left heart cath and the transesophogeal EKG but depending on the results he may be doing a right cath to look at my arteries too. The next day I got a message from my doctor saying my echo was within normal parameters. With the report attached. That had 4 things bolded as being abnormal. The cardio said my echo results could be benign based on my age, but based on my symptoms, he wanted to do further testing. Thank goodness. Because my primary would have let things just continue to get worse. Just as a side note: I’m going under a new primary as of June 6 just as a side note. Between that and some other issues with that doctor and the fact he’s an hour away because I moved, I’m so done with him. I’m sorry this is so long. Just know you aren’t alone and if things are minimal/mild, maybe it was caught early enough that they can keep the damage/issues from getting worse. Anything with the heart is scary 🥺. I’ve been trying not to freak out myself. Take care of you 💜